Chapter 7
seven
. . .
Cassidy
I’d barely made it through an hour and a half-long staff meeting at work before swiping up my Celine bag from behind my desk and skating off to lunch.
I planned to spend the hour refueling with a much-needed meal and the largest cup of coffee I could get my hands on.
A week had passed since my life blew up on Christmas, and the bloggers had finally moved on to another story.
I finally felt free enough to walk outside my building without hiding my eyes behind oversized sunglasses or shielding my face with my hand.
As I stood in the line at the Starbucks down the block from my company’s building, my phone vibrated.
Noticing it was coming from my office, I quickly rolled my eyes and braced myself for some unforeseen bullshit.
“This is Cassidy Stokes,” I answered.
“Cassidy! It’s Jacquelyn Warner from human resources. Is now a good time?”
“Y—yes,” I answered hesitantly.
“Great. I wanted to let you know that you’ve been selected for the promotion to lead the operations division out of our new office in New York. Congratulations!”
My eyeballs popped wide as I struggled to push words out of my mouth. “T—thank you. But um, New York? I didn’t know that was on the table. I thought I would be taking over the operations here in California if offered the job.”
“Let me look over the interview notes here, just one second.”
Her pregnant pause allowed me enough time to put her on mute and step up to the overworked, syrup-pumping barista to place my order.
“Hi, can I get an iced venti caramel macchiato with seven pumps of caramel syrup, extra whip, and a hazelnut and mocha drizzle? Oh, and a chicken and bacon panini?” I requested before pulling out my card and swiping it in the machine.
“Ms. Stokes?” Jacqueline called out, back from doing her research.
“Yes, I’m still here,” I answered after taking the phone off mute.
“Okay, it seems like there were interviewing for two positions that needed to be filled. One here, and one in our New York office. The interviewers were impressed with your background and felt you would be best to head the division in New York. Now, should you accept this position, the company will pay your relocation fees given that you do so in ninety days.”
“Ninety days?” I repeated.
“Yes.”
“Okay, and when would I need to give you an answer?”
“As soon as possible but seeing as though we’ve just come off the holidays, I’ll say at least by the middle of next week. Will that work?”
“Yes, the middle of next week. Got it. I’ll be in touch and thank you again for calling.”
“No problem, congratulations again!”
I smiled so hard my cheek started to cramp as I savored the first slurp of my custom drink order. “Thank you.”
The serendipitous call was the only thing able to put a pause on my downward spiral since things had ended so poorly between Hendrix and I on Christmas, no less.
Hanging up and sucking down my custom-made drink order had suddenly made my day ten times better.
I wanted to keep the good vibes pouring in and decided to call the one person I knew could keep a smile on my face.
“What up, floozy?” Lauryn answered with a childish giggle.
I quickly smacked my cherry red painted lips together before my smile returned. “I’m gon’ let that slide because I have good news!”
“I like good news. What are we celebrating?”
“You remember the job I told you about? You know, the promotion I was interviewing for?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, they called me like ten minutes ago and told me I got it! I still can’t believe it because I swear to God, I thought I bombed that shit!”
“There you go, being all negative again. How many times I gotta tell you that you a bad ass bitch?”
I rolled my eyes to the bright, blue sky above me. “Yeah, yeah. You sound like—never mind,” I disputed, stopping myself before I uttered his name.
I hadn’t fully processed everything that had gone down between Hendrix and me.
I’d finally confessed my love for him and still managed to let him slip right through the palms of my hands like putty.
I must’ve stared at the set of keys in the gift box for an hour straight after Hendrix left that morning.
A week had passed since then, and he hadn’t asked for his keys back.
Without knowing the address to his new home, I couldn’t use them anyway, so I guess he rendered them useless in my possession.
My heels clicked and clacked across the pavement back to my office as Lauryn spoke up. “Speaking of him…have you heard from him? You know, since you told me about all that shit that went down when he showed up at your spot on Christmas?”
His words still floated around my head and messed with my scorned heart. He’d gone out of his way to explain himself to me. No other man had ever driven eight hours to explain himself to my face. The most I’d gotten was a text paragraph or Omar’s sorry ass confession over a shared appetizer.
“We speak here and there, but it’s not like it was. But listen, talking about him is really going to kill my vibe, and I’m havin’ a pretty stellar day, so can we not?” I asked as I swiped my badge to get back inside the building.
“Okay, okay! I’m sorry! You’re right. Fuck him!
Back to the job. C’mon and give me details!
What’s our new title? What are our responsibilities?
And most importantly, what’s that pay ‘bout? Give me all the deets because I’m livin’ vicariously through your ass while I’m locked down in the house on nesting mommy mode. ”
“I’d be the director of operations at the new office they’re opening. So, that means I’ll be doing the day-to-day stuff like making sure my employees are monitoring, alerting, and patching any software issues for the company. And the pay is…divine,” I indulged.
Accepting that job would put me in another tax bracket, but I’d been a West Coast girl all my life and didn’t know how I’d adjust to The Big Apple.
A part of me felt like the job offer couldn’t have come at a better time.
The universe had seemingly delivered the sign I’d subconsciously been praying for.
Maybe a fresh start in New York was exactly what I needed.
“Heyyyy! That’s what the fuck I’m talkin’ ‘bout! My girl ‘bout to be Cali paid in the Cali shade!” Lauryn cheered, prompting the bittersweet reminder that I hadn’t spilled all the tea about where the job was actually located.
“About that…” I muttered before closing my office door behind me for privacy.
“What?”
“It’s more like New York shade.”
“Girl, what the hell are you talkin’ about?”
“The job is in New York, Lauryn.”
“Now what now?” she asked.
I heard the sadness in her voice, and I immediately found myself choking back tears. “I know it’s not ideal, but…”
A whizz of air expelled from her lips. “No. No. The devil is not going to steal my joy today! This is a good thing! This is so, so good, Cass! You gotta do what you gotta do.”
I bobbed my head before kicking off my heels behind my desk and taking the first bite out of my warm panini.
“You’re right, I know. It’s like I know I should be excited and be jumping at the chance, but I don’t know.
California has always been my home. I don’t know how I’ll adapt to New York, let alone moving there in the cold. ”
“I get it, but it ain’t nothin’ to buy a winter coat. I bet you’d look cute in some fur,” she joked.
I smacked my apple red lips at her. “Look, I’ve got another meeting to get to in like twenty minutes, and I need to finish my lunch. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“Okay, we’ll finish this conversation about this big opportunity this weekend at my baby shower.”
“Yup, sure. I’ll be there bright and early Saturday morning to help Shauna and Brielle with the decorations,” I promised her.
“Okay, I’ll talk to you later.”
The moment I ended the call, I closed the door and started chowing down on what was left of my panini.
Lauryn was right; the promotion was a good thing.
As happy as I was to have a win to celebrate, it killed me not to be able to pick up the phone and tell the one person I wanted to share the news with.
Everything outside of my love life seemed to be falling right in line.
After savoring the last bite of my lunch, my phone vibrated against my cherrywood desk.
I quickly flipped it over to see the name Mom written across the screen.
Although my mom and I barely had what I would call a “good relationship,” I’d been dodging her calls for a few weeks to prep for my interview.
I didn’t need her negative ass fuckin’ up my headspace, but since the job was in the bag, I decided to pick up.
“Hey, Mom,” I answered, slowly praying her response wouldn’t make me want to hang up in her face.
“Well, if it isn’t my long-lost daughter.”
I let out a sigh-growl. “Sorry I haven’t gotten around to calling you back. It’s just things with work and everything have been a little crazy for the past few weeks.”
“Last I heard from you was a Merry Christmas text at eleven o’clock at night. What’s been going on? How’s work?”
“A lot has been going on, and work is good. I actually have something to tell you.”
“I have something to tell you, too, but you go first. What’s your news?” she inquired.
“I got offered a new job, the director of operations at a new office my company is opening.”
“Wow, director of operations. That’s a strong title. It better come with the salary to match.”
I pressed my lips together tightly, careful not to say the first thing that came to mind.
I’d literally said five sentences to her, and she already had something critical to say.
I didn’t know why there was a part of me that still required her approval.
I was a grown ass woman, yet I felt like I still wasn’t good enough in her eyes. “It does,” I confirmed.
“Good. I taught you well.”
“Well, the thing is, I don’t know if I’m going to take it,” I confessed.
“Why wouldn’t you take it, Cassidy?”